Wanker nigrah twat paki Ofcom study

Another good column from the Speccie's Dot Wordsworth, whom maman is convinced is bearded religioso polymath, Chris Howse.

Some choice facts from the Ofcom study on offensive language.

Nigger and Paki are judged the most offensive discriminatory words and thought not quite suitable for TV or radio.

Nigger used only 47 times

Fuck ~ 75 times

C*** 39 times

Wanker, 13 times; oddly enough Wank not at all.

Twat, a currently fashionable word, is used 25 times.

"It is worth mentioning that the language of the Ofcom report is itself offensive in quite a different way.

It mangles grammar in pursuit of a dialect that might be known as executive summarese.

It speaks, for example, of:

‘Material broadcast pre-watershed and post-watershed across a range of channels’.

Why not ‘before the watershed and after the watershed, on a range of channels’?

Sometimes this executive summarese obscures meaning."

Good stuff.